Several Ark. inmates seek to have appeal dismissed

The inmates' lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig, filed a motion to dismiss their appeal in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Thursday.

Associated Press

Several Arkansas death row inmates want to have their appeal dismissed in a case involving the state's public records law.

The inmates' lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig, filed a motion to dismiss their appeal in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Thursday.

Rosenzweig previously filed a conditional notice of appeal in the Freedom of Information Act case in April after a judge said the information the inmates were seeking was exempt from disclosure under the act.

The inmates had initially asked the court to order the Arkansas Department of Correction to turn over documents about the drugs the state planned use to execute them.

In last week's court filing, Rosenzweig said there's no need for litigation in the public records case anymore as the same six inmates involved in that lawsuit are now involved in a separate lawsuit challenging the state's new execution law. Those inmates are Stacey Johnson, Jack Jones, Jason McGehee, Bruce Ward, Kenneth Williams and Marcel Williams. Three other inmates are also involved in the suit challenging the new law.

Both lawsuits came about after changes at the state Capitol and the Arkansas Supreme Court in the past year.

The high court struck down the state's lethal injection law in June 2012, saying legislators had ceded too much control over execution procedures to correction officials. So this year, lawmakers enacted a new law that said the state must use a lethal dose of a barbiturate in lethal injections. However, the new law leaves it up to the Department of Correction to pick the drug.

The Associated Press first reported in April that Arkansas planned to use an anti-seizure drug called phenobarbital in executions, even though that chemical has never been used in a lethal injection in the United States.

So inmates sued, challenging the state's new lethal injection law, along with the procedure that spelled out plans to use phenobarbital and the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam. However, the prisoners have since amended their lawsuit to limit their challenge to the new execution law, not the procedure, which the Department of Correction has said it plans to rewrite.

Arkansas last executed a death row inmate in 2005. Gov. Mike Beebe said this month that he doesn't have any immediate plans to schedule execution dates for seven death row inmates, even though the attorney general asked him to do so.

Beebe's office has said the governor's decision to hold off on setting execution dates comes as the Department of Correction plans to rewrite its lethal injection protocol and as the inmates challenge the state's new lethal injection law.